Columns

As we promised last week, we begin the portion of our recollections of “characters” related to those of the female persuasion, and as we indicated then, we choose to begin this part of the series with Mrs. R. H. Ward, nee Nelle Alkire. Mrs. Ward’s story will require more space than we have available in a single column, so the following is Part One, to be followed by one or more parts in subsequent issues.
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Author’s note: The following three premises are essential to this column.

1) None of us sees the past or present with absolute clarity; 2) Each of us has the capacity for glimpses of informed insight that draw from and reflect our personal values; and 3) Cordial, forthright exchange of those insights enhances our mutual well being.

By MARK T. BANKER
Author’s note: The following three premises are essential to this column.
1) None of us sees the past or present with absolute clarity; 2) Each of us has the capacity for glimpses of informed insight that draw from and reflect our personal values; and 3) Cordial, forthright exchange of those insights enhances our mutual well being.

At the end of 2014, editor Terri Likens and I discussed restarting my “occasional” column in the Roane County News.

Friends, the IRS will never call nor email you about taxes or penalties you may owe.

I saw that line time and again over the summer, when the Internal Revenue Service sent out an almost-continuous stream of press releases warning taxpayers about schemes in which swindlers attempt to separate law-abiding citizens from their hard-earned dollars by evoking the name that sends chills through most Americans.

Well, Gentle Reader, this week let us discuss education and the sad fact that sometimes the very folks we have placed in charge of the education of our young are themselves sadly lacking in the basic skills of clear thinking, sound reasoning, and basic factual knowledge.

This unhappy happenstance occurs at all levels, sad to say, running from the ivied halls of academe to the basic neighborhood institutions of kindergarten upwards.

Last week we pointed out how the Republican Party’s unification behind their apostle of adultery and abortion, Dr. Scott DesJarlais, their candidate for re-election as congressman from the Fourth Congressional District of Tennessee must perforce result in the party itself being henceforth labeled, not the pro-life party of family values, but instead the party of Adultery and Abortion.

By FRANK GIBSON
TPA Public Policy Director
When governments create or authorize state and local agencies to create new programs, they typically require some measure of public disclosure as a form of public oversight and to make agencies accountable.

As far back as 1789, during the first American Congress, that accountability has come in the form of public notices in independently published newspapers. Actions of the Congress were ordered to be published in three separate newspapers to ensure wide circulation.

By RON WOODY
Roane County Executive
As citizens, we often ask — and even demand — certain services of our government and then are reluctant when it comes to paying for them.

Your local government is the government closest to the people, and this government, whether it be a county or a city, often struggles with balancing the funding requirements of one group of citizens’ needs or desires with other groups’ needs and desires. All this pushing and pulling could be called lobbying.

By GENE POLICINSKI
First Amendment Center
Who knew the 45 words of the First Amendment came with buttered popcorn?

Entering 2014, it’s safe to say that none of us could have envisioned that one of the year’s biggest global collisions between freedom of expression and tyrannical suppression of speech would revolve around a lightweight movie comedy, “The Interview.”